221B Con 2018: A panel with blue latex gloves. And drugs.

If the fates and Three Patch are kind, you might have the chance to hear my last panel, and my participation on it, on a podcast eventually. The title? "Sherlock and John Aboard Serenity."

There have always been overlap between fans of Sherlock Holmes and fans of Star Trek, so it should not come as any surprise that there are more than a few fans of Sherlock Holmes and the short-lived Fox series Firefly. And at 221B Con, it's also no surprise that four panelists and a roomful of folks can gather to discuss both of those topics at the same time. And have the panel wear blue latex gloves. And have a River Tamm look-a-like in the front row.

I'm going to be a horrible reporter here and just promise to mention when and if that recording becomes available, since I was sitting on the panel and not a good self-reporter. So let me talk about "Drug Use in the Victorian Era" with Lyndsay Faye and Chris Zordan, which I wandered into thinking the bigger room would be the Atlanta Radio Theater Company (and by the type I found that room, it was near-full).

So what have I learned so far about drug use in the Victorian era? Chris says cocaine doesn't dissolve well enough to get 7% mixed with water without it looking like sugar in the bottom of a tea glass.

The battery on my laptop and the battery in my brain seem to both be hitting the recharge point. I swear I heard someone lightly snoring a moment ago, so maybe I'm not alone in this.

Lyndsay makes a point that the temperance/feminist movement coming out of women being tired of dealing with their alcoholic husbands. I look up nearby fast food restaurants on Google maps. I think Maslow's hierarchy of needs is starting to kick my ass with regard to my con-going skills. Hope I don't lose "shelter" or else I am seriously screwed.

The topic of Sherlockians who insist Sherlock Holmes didn't have a drug problem comes up, versus the fact he plainly had one as stated by Watson in the Canon. I get the feeling that these two have spoken on the subject before and gotten some blowback from Sherlockians somewhere before.

As with most panels, this one is a free-wheeling discussion of the topic, going from Conan Doyle's father to CBS's Elementary to recognizing addiction patterns in the Canon. Lots of thoughts that my weary brain definitely isn't fully appreciating, and my laptop battery life is getting concerning, so I sill adieu for the moment . . . .

Onward.